Messiah #2a—The Ethnicity of the Lord Jesus Christ

I greet you once again in the awesome name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the Messiah.  For all of you who tuned in last week, thank you for listening again today. Last week was my very first broadcast in which I introduced myself and my ministry to the radio audience. If you missed last weeks introductory broadcast I have complimentary audio cassette tapes available. If you would like a tape of today’s broadcast, you may purchase it for $5.00 Please send your request for your complimentary tape for Messiah Tape # 1 or your request for today’s broadcast along with $5.00 to PO Box 13643, Tallahassee, Florida 32317.

It is truly a blessing to be able to deliver a message that God has put on my heart, for you today. Today, I am going to share with you and establish the ethnicity of the Lord Jesus Christ and why it is important to the Black Race of people and all Christian people.  While many of my sermons are purposely directed to the Black Race of people whom the Lord has primarily sent me to minister to because it is they/us who are the scattered sheep of Israel, I want my Brothers and Sisters of all races who may be tuning in right now to know that the message of who Jesus Christ truly is and who True Israel is is vital to your Christian faith.  These messages must transcend religious, racial and political lines.

G-d has also given me His messages for individual races and as I minister on this and future broadcasts, I will show you how all of these prophetic messages relates to the entire Church Body.

While historically the mention of race has been hidden and disregarded in the Church, I have come to realize that the Bible mentions different ethnic people and their differences throughout.  It doesn’t surprise me that the Lord Jesus Christ is now bringing something so disregarded in the Church, yet so significant, to the forefront. Jesus in not intimidated about opening up the truth about racial issues in the Church and wants the elephant in the room to be removed and the truth to be told.  He is using people such as myself to make His Word and His Will known to the Church today. The Lord has also shown me that because of the different cultures and experiences of different people as a race, different races need to be ministered to in different ways.

Please continue to tune in and know that none are forgotten by our Savior as the Scripture confirms to us in the prophetic word from the prophet Isaiah that was prophesied for this latter day, in Isaiah chapter 56 verse 8 which says“the Sovereign Lord declares—He who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”

It is an exciting thing what the Lord is doing today in our time and I am happy and blessed to bring these messages to all of us. Please stay with me.

Let’s pray before I get into my message.

Dear Holy and Precious Lord Jesus, I come humbly into your presence bringing the needs and hunger of your people before you today. I pray that you will fill every heart with the sweetness of your word of revelation to them and that they will be mightily blessed by it. Thank you for our ears and may they be blessed to hear your truths. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen

You may like to follow along in your Bibles. I will be referring to Scripture text primarily from Genesis chapters 10&11, Deuteronomy and Daniel. I am quoting from either the NIV or KJV versions of the Bible. I want to point out that I use the words Hebrew, Israelite and Jewish synonymously because they are all the same nation of people, the descendants of Jacob. 

Many have asked and still many may wonder why the Lord would speak to me about His ethnic identity and the ethnic identity of the original Jewish people.  You may be wondering as others have, what difference it makes what Jesus’ race was and what the race of the original Jewish people was.

To be clear about it, I want it understood that it makes absolutely no difference at all in the Deity of Jesus Christ as G-d and that He is the Savior of all mankind. It makes no difference in His love for all people.  Furthermore, it makes no difference in His supremacy over all things in heaven and earth and all that dwells within it.

What does make a difference in why Jesus’ ethnic identity has had to be revealed as well as that of the original Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people is because it connects Him to His covenant people, the original Black Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people and their descendants who are the Black race of people that inhabit the earth today.  According to scripture, Jesus’ true identity has actually been hidden from them until this day by G-d’s own doing.  You may read about this in Deut. 31:17&18, & Deut 32:20  I will go over one of these scriptures with you in a moment.

The Israelite people continuously disobeyed G-d even though He for many many centuries showed them His love and miraculous hand of power on their behalf. Because of G-d’s complete disappointment and anger towards the Israelite people, they were cursed by G-d. The Black race of people are the descendants of these original Black Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people and have been victims of this curse as well; However, G-d has not forgotten His chosen people and promised that one day He was going to come and restore them. This is that day.

The Book of Deuteronomy tells us about the curses that would befall these Black Israelite people and the book of Daniel Chapter 9 verses 4-14 tells us that those curses were fulfilled. The Scripture says in Daniel 9:11 & 12, “All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of G-d, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster.” As we can see with these scriptures, the curses written in the Book of Deuteronomy against the original Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people were fulfilled.

One of the curses that would befall the Black Israelite people and their descendants is written in the Book of Deuteronomy chapter 31verse 17 where G-d in His anger towards the disobedience of the these Israelite people instructed Moses to tell them these words of prophecy “On that day, I will become angry with them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed.” It has been by G-d’s own will that the true identity of Jesus Christ has not been known until today. In Matthew 23:39 Jesus himself says the following to the Black Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people in His frustration towards their disobedience: ‘For I tell you, you shall not see me again until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” ’It was G-d’s plan all along for the true identity of Jesus Christ not to be known until now.

In the Book of Daniel the prophet Daniel was instructed by G-d in Daniel Chapter 12 verse 4a,” But you Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end.” As we can see by this scripture, certain revelations of the Holy Scripture were to be sealed until the time of the end.  We are now at the time of the end and the sealed words of G-d are being opened up to us. These revelations that I speak on are part of those revelations that were sealed until now.

What I am stressing is that Jesus purposely hid Himself and His ethnic identity from His chosen people, the Black Hebrew, Israelite Jewish people and the world until now, today, when He is now beginning the promised restoration of these people. We the Black race of people on earth today are the blood descendants of these Israelite people. While we inherited the curse of our Israelite ancestors and have suffered the horrendous injustices of mankind because of it, we are also the recipients of the promised restoration.

This is why it is so important for Jesus’ true identity to be made known and why the identity of the original Israelite people has to be made known. We, the Black race are being restored and the Lord Jesus Christ now wants us to know who He is to us and who we are to Him.

To begin to establish the ethnicity of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must first realize that His heritage and earthly family starts many centuries before His actual birth written about in the book of Matthew.  The Lord Jesus’ 1^st and 2^nd coming is prophesied throughout the Old Testament. His family line can be traced all the way back to the first man Adam. The book of Luke Chapter 3 shows us the genealogy of Jesus Christ on His Mother Mary’s side dating back to Adam. The book of Matthew gives us His Genealogy on His stepfather Joseph’s side dating back to Abraham.

The first thing that I want to point out is the geographical area of the Garden of Eden which is the place of creation of the first man Adam. Eden was in Africa. The Book of Genesis 2:10-14 gives us a description of the boundaries of Eden.  It reads as follows from the KJV: “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden: and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the fold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

The Euphrates is the Nile River, the longest river system in the world that runs through Egypt. Because of the lack of time allowed I will not be able to get into an in depth study of these regions right now; however, if you didn’t get anything else from the names of the region that Eden was in and the rivers that surrounded it, please do pay attention to the fact that Ethiopia and the Nile River which as I have said, runs through Egypt is mentioned in the Scripture. We know that both Ethiopia and Egypt are in Africa.  With further study, you will find that all of the regions mentioned were in the original continent of Africa. I suggest further study in the Original African Heritage Bible and the Jubilee Legacy Bible both edited by the Reverend Dr. Cain Hope Felder of The Howard University School of Divinity in Washington DC.

According to scripture in Genesis 10&11, all people were one people until the birth of one man in Jesus’ royal family line named Peleg spelled P-e-l-e-g in the NIV. Scripture tells us in Genesis 10:25a that different nations of people were formed (the earth was divided) during the lifetime of Peleg.  The scripture says: “Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg because in his time the earth was divided.”  This is a very significant scripture. This dividing of the earth was the formulation of the different nations of people which happened during the lifetime of Peleg

Prior to his birth of this man Peleg, all people were one race of people. Genesis 11:1 gives of the account of the people before the formation of the different nations which gives us some insight of who these people were and what their race could possibly have been.  It says, “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. Genesis 11:6 says “The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

These scriptures signified that all of the people were one people.  Based on the regions of civilization at that time, archaeological evidence and DNA findings, it is evident that these people would have been Black Negroid people. Archaeology has discovered time and again that the first human bones were discovered in Africa. I have had some DNA testing done myself and done some research on it. My DNA on my mother’s, mother’s line on down was traced all the way back to the first woman, Eve at the beginning of human existence. This is rare and not all DNA is traced back that far.

Given that prior to the birth of Peleg, all people were one people, we can conclude that they were Black Negroid people based on the regions and archaeological evidence. This means that Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Ham, Shem, Japheth, and all people born before the birth of Peleg would have been Black Negroid people. What is significant about Peleg is that because the different nations of people were formed during his lifetime, after He was already born, then he would have been a Black Negroid man as well and it He continued the Royal family line of Jesus Christ. Read and study Genesis 11:16-18.

Let’s look at Jesus’ earthly family beginning with Adam. Many of you are probably thinking that if we begin with Adam, then we may as well say that everyone is related which is true in that we all originated from the first man and woman Adam and Eve.

However, God is the creator of families, different tribes and clans. This is important to God and Jesus’ earthly family is significant. It was God’s sovereign election of a certain nation of people, who are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people that He chose as His covenant people. These people are Jesus’ earthly family and that is important to Him, particularly His Royal Line. I find that many Christians do not realize that Jesus had brothers and sisters as well as a mother and earthly stepfather. Surely, these siblings must have produced a host of nieces, nephews and cousins of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He also had ancestors that He was very connected to among the most notable being King David and his family. These facts help us the realize the very humanity of Jesus Christ as well as His Deity. He can truly relate to us on a very personal and human way which is one of the things I have found so awesome about His revelations to me.  He showed me that I am His family member in a much closer way then I have ever known.  It is different then saying I’m a Christian and belong to the family of G-d which in it self is no small thing. But He revealed to me that I am closely related to Him, by blood, being part of His Israelite family and how special that is.

This is what I want to impart to you, my Black brothers and sisters, is how special it is that the Lord has come to us with these revelations of our relation to Him and that that holds special prominence filled with special blessing, but we must believe and turn to Him in obedience.

As I said earlier Jesus’ complete genealogy beginning with Adam is written in Luke Chapter 3. Some significant people who begin to form His Royal line are Adam, Seth, than Noah.

Let’s stop and look at Noah because it was Noah’s three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth who repopulated the earth after God destroyed the earth with the great flood. Remember, we’ve already established that all of these people including Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth would have to have been Black Negroid people because they were born prior to the birth of Peleg. Thusly, we have established some of Jesus earthly line up to this point as well.

By the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth, the different nations, tribes and clans of people were formed. You can read this in Genesis chapter 10. Japheth was the oldest son and from him were birthed the Gentile nations of people according to Genesis 10:5. A Gentile is anyone who is not Jewish. There are Jewish people today from all nations of people who may have become Jewish through conversion according to the Book of Esther chapter 8 verse 17; however, the original Jews were Black African People.

Noah’s other two sons Shem and Ham, are the progenitors of the Black Negroid people and the Black Negroid Semite people, the Israelites. It has commonly been agreed upon by scholars that Ham is the progenitor of African peoples given the names of the African nations that were named for his offspring in which some remain the same today. You can read about this in Genesis 10:6-20. Notice also that Japheth is specifically the father of the Gentile nations. Ham’s descendants are not considered Gentiles. God foreknew that the Black Negroid descendants of Ham would intermix and intermarry with the Black Negroid Semite people, which has caused what we have today, all Black people having Semite blood making all of us Jewish by right. Black people are not Gentiles nor have we ever been.

Given the descriptions of the Israelite people, whom they intermixed and married with, their character and other distinguishing facts about them written in scripture, it is evident that these people were Black Negroid people. I will cover this more in next week’s sermon as I establish the African Negroid ethnicity of the Israelite people.

Having established that Shem, who is the progenitor of the Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people, was by all probability based on scripture,  a Black Negroid man, than, his descendants, including Jesus, who is born through the Semite line of Shem, would have been a Black Negroid man also.

There are also physical descriptions of our Lord Jesus Christ that depict Him as a Black Negroid man. The most widely known scripture is in Revelation 1:14a where it gives a description of Jesus’ appearance. It states that “His head and His hairs were white like wool.” I believe that the use of the words, like wool is significant here and tells us that Jesus’ hair was indeed like wool even though it uses an allegorical description of the color white.

We all know that it is the Black Negroid person whose hair is described as similar to wool or like wool. There is another reference in Daniel 7:9a where it states that the Ancient of Days (referring to G-d), hair was like pure wool. It says, “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool.”  G-d’s description of Himself through scripture describes His hair as being like wool. I believe that these scriptures are written for specific descript ional purposes of Jesus and God to be understood for this day that we live in today. Read Daniel 12:4.

The Book of Matthew 12:13-15 also gives us some evidence of Jesus’ physical appearance.  It tells us of the account of the angel of the Lord appearing before Jesus’ earthly father Joseph and instructing him to take Jesus and flee into Egypt to hide Him there because Herod the King wanted to kill him. So Joseph and Jesus’ mother Mary hid Jesus in Egypt until Herod died.

It cannot be disputed that the ancient Egyptians were Black Negroid people. All archaeological evidence and artifacts give us sure proof of that besides the fact that Egypt itself is in Africa.  It wouldn’t even make common since for us to believe that God would take a white or even olive colored person to a country full of Black Negroid people for the purposes of hiding Him there.  Jesus being hidden in Egypt fulfilled the prophecy given by the prophet Hosea in Hosea Chapter 1 verse 1 and was stated again as fulfilled in Matthew 12:15 which states God as saying, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.”  This scripture is actually saying, out of this land, out of these people, have I called my Son. This land was Africa, the land of Ham and these people were Black Negroid people.

While these Scripture references should be sufficient enough in giving us a biblical description of Jesus’ physical appearance on earth, perhaps my strongest argument concerning the ethnicity of Jesus Christ, since many will choose to challenge or interpret these scriptures in other ways, is that I heard from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself concerning His ethnicity. He told me these words, and I quote, “I am Black.”

I am an African American who grew up in a pretty sheltered environment being the daughter of a military man. I was a Navy Brat and my whole world primarily consisted of my white counterparts.  I grew up color blind not ever really giving thought to mine or anyone else’s ethnic race.  I was about as non-prejudice as you can get and still am. 

When the Lord brought this word to me, I was very involved with my church which was an all white church except for my family and a couple of other individuals. I had come to a point in my life where I was really questioning the Lord about my people as a race. I wanted to know what was wrong with us and what had happened to us. Most Black people realize that we have been the most hated and disgraced race of all peoples and that was a hard reality for me at that time. I truly wanted to understand why. Although my life had not been surrounded by many African Americans or other Black people when I was growing up, I had a fervent love for my race of people. I ached at the facts of slavery and what my ancestors must have gone through as slaves. I had become keenly aware that I was very much connected to Africa and that that was where my roots and my people were.

When the Lord came to me with the revelation that I speak and write about, that He was a Black man, that I like Himself am Jewish, that the original Israelites were Black Negroid people and that all Black people of today are blood descendants of the original Israelites, He came suddenly and unexpected.  I truly did not know this was coming nor did I ever expect in a million years that the Lord Jesus Christ would reveal His identity to me as a Black man.  I was shocked, to put it mildly.

After the Lord revealed these things to me, everything started to make sense in my life. I was truly set free. The Bible confirmed all that He had revealed. When I would read the Scriptures, my eyes were opened to the truth. They made a lot more sense. After having the knowledge from the Lord Himself about the Black Negroid presence in the Scriptures, then, it was clear to see. Understanding what the ancient regions were and their close proximities to Africa, the interactions among the people, the references to Egypt and Ethiopia, the discovery of the Black heritage of such peoples as the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites and others, the descriptions of Jesus and the Israelite people…It was all there, clear to be understood.

Jesus words to me were surely confirmed to me by Scripture; however, the Lord didn’t stop there with His confirmations to me.  The Lord lead me to write about the revelation that He had given me which many of you know is now a published book entitled “Me?Jewish? The Revelation of a Black American Christian Jewish Woman.” Many years after He had given me these revelations and after my manuscript was written, the Lord divinely lead me to a Bible which I cherish entitled the “Original African Heritage Bible,” edited by the Reverend Dr. Cain Hope Felder, a professor at the Howard University Divinity School in Washington DC.

I could not have asked the Lord for a more assured confirmation then the research and notes that Dr. Felder had done in this Bible. He had essentially the same messages in His Bible notes that the Lord had given me which was quite amazing to me because up until that time, I was a voice in the wilderness, not knowing anyone who believed or heard of the things that the Lord had revealed to me.  I have since learned that Dr. Felder is a scholar and has traveled extensively, working on research concerning the Black presence in the Bible.

He has written numerous books and has edited several Bibles concerning the ethnicity of Jesus Christ and the Black Negroid presence in the Bible. He is the founder and chairman of the Biblical Institute for Social Change which addresses some of the same issues concerning Black people that I write and talk about. I have had the opportunity to speak to him on a few of different occasions and we agree that the Lord has essentially given us the same messages, him through his research and me through revelation knowledge.

Yes, it may be hard for some to believe and yet others may wonder what difference it makes what the ethnicity of the Lord Jesus Christ is. As I said earlier, Jesus’ ethnicity is important because it links Him to His original chosen nation of people, the Black Negroid Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people. In other words, it links Jesus to the Black race of people of today.

It is for this day and time for His ethnicity to be revealed because it is the time of Restoration for His Black Hebrew, Israelite, Jewish people and they/we must recognize who He is to us.  It was by His own doing that these things have been concealed until this time. Again, some scripture references pertaining to this are in Isaiah 30:26 & Daniel 12:4. Read also 2 Corinthians 3:13-16.

Jesus is God the Son, Lord and Savior of all mankind. He has all authority in heaven and earth. That has not changed. What has changed is that a people, the Black race, can now see their King, King of the Jews, as He is, one of them or may I say, one of us.

Let us humble ourselves in His Presence and acknowledge Him as our Lord and our King. Amen

There is much more to this revelation that pertains to the entire Church body. Unfortunately, because of the lack of time I cannot get into that today however, please tune in to future broadcasts as I teach the fullness of these messages.

I hope that your heart and minds have been highly enlightened and that you can now see the Lord Jesus Christ as He is, your Lord, your Savior and your King. Please be sure to join my broadcast next Saturday as I establish the ethnicity of the original Israelite people. You may also like to visit my online church, New Israel Church of Jesus Christ Online @ www.newisraelonline.org where I expound on all of these messages and give deeper understanding.

I’d like to share this word from the Lord to you.

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

Have a blessed week in the Lord and we’ll talk next week.

Sylvia A. Thomas